· January 7 – Russia shuts off all gas to Europe through Ukraine. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin publicly supports the move and suggests that international observers be brought into the dispute.^[6]

· January 12 – The Electronic System for Travel Authorization becomes necessary for travelers from Visa Waiver Program countries before travel to the United States.^[7]

· January 13 – Ethiopian military forces start to go home from Somalia, where they have tried to keep order for nearly two years.^[8]

· January 15 – US Airways Flight 1549, crash-lands in the Hudson River near Manhattan. All 155 people leave the airplane safely. The accident happened because the plane hit a flock of Canada Geese.

· January 17 – Israel declares a cease-fire against Hamas, even though Hamas does not. This ends Israel's attacks after 22 days of fighting in Gaza.

· January 20 – Inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States.

· January 26 – The International Criminal Court has its first trial. Union of Congolese Patriots leader Thomas Lubanga is claimed to have used children to make war.^[9]

· January 26 – The Icelandic government and banking system collapse. Prime Minister Geir Haarde resigns.

February[change | change source]

· February 1 – Patriarch Kirill I of Moscow is enthroned as the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.

· February 1 – Johanna Sigurdardottir becomes Prime Minister of Iceland.

· February 2 – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that Iran has launched its own satellite, "Omid", into orbit on an Iranian-built rocket.^[10]

· February 7 – The deadliest bushfires in Australian history begin; they kill 173, injure 500 more, and leave 7,500 homeless. The fires come after Melbourne records the hottest-ever temperature (46.4 °C, 115 °F) of any capital city in Australia. The majority of the fires are started by either fallen or clashing power lines or deliberately lit.

· February 9 – Victoria (Australia) hottest day, 48.8 °C at Hopetoun.^[11]

· February 10 – A Russian and an American satellite collide over Siberia, creating a large amount of space debris.^[12]

· February 17 – The JEM rebel group in Darfur, Sudan sign a pact with the Sudanese government, planning a ceasefire within the next 3 months.

· February 25 – Members of the Bangladesh Rifles paramilitary force begin mutinying. Over 80 are killed.

March[change | change source]

· March 2 – The President of Guinea-Bissau, João Bernardo Vieira, is assassinated during an armed attack on his residence in Bissau.^[13]

· March 3 – Gunmen attack a bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore, Pakistan, killing eight people and injuring several others.^[14]

· March 17 – The President of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, is overthrown in a coup d'état, following a month of rallies in Antananarivo. The military appoints opposition leader Andry Rajoelina as the new president.

April[change | change source]

· April 1 – Albania and Croatia join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

· April 5 – North Korea launches the Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 rocket, prompting an emergency meeting of—but no official reaction from—the United Nations Security Council.

· April 6 – A 6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes near L'Aquila, Italy, killing nearly 300 and injuring more than 1,500.^[15]

May[change | change source]

· May 4 – The President of Niger, Tandja Mamadou, holds peace talks with the Tuareg rebel groups in north Niger.

· May 18 – The third C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group meets in Seoul.

· May 18 -Following more than a quarter-century of fighting, the Sri Lankan Civil War ends with the total military defeat of the LTTE.^[16][17]

June[change | change source]

· June 1 – An Air France plane crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil, killing all of the 228 people on board.

· June 12 – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is reelected as the president of Iran. Over the following weeks, thousands of the opposition's supporters protest the results.

o The end of analog television broadcast in United States.

· June 25 – Music legend Michael Jackson dies in Los Angeles at the age of 50.

· June 28 – Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is ousted in a coup.

July[change | change source]

· July 1 – Sweden assumes the presidency of the European Union.^[18]

· July 4 – The Organization of American States suspends Honduras due to the country's recent political crisis after its refusal to reinstate President Zelaya.^[19][20]

· July 5 – Over 150 are killed when a few thousand ethnic Uyghurs target local Han Chinese during major rioting in Ürümqi, Xinjiang.

· July 15 – Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 crashes near Qazvin, Iran, killing all 168 on board.

· July 16 – Iceland's parliament votes to pursue joining the EU.^[21]

· July 22 – The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, lasting up to six minutes and 38.8 seconds, occurs over parts of Asia and the Pacific Ocean; it is figured to be the most widely observed total eclipse in human history.

August[change | change source]

· August 4 – North Korean leader Kim Jong-il pardons two American journalists, who had been arrested and imprisoned, for illegal entry earlier in the year, after the old U.S. President Bill Clinton meets with Kim in North Korea.^[22]